Author's Note: Wee! CoyoteLoon, Kraven the Hunter, Gooey Balooza, Katerina, and Vazura: Thanks for the support, guys! Oh, and I forgot to write the disclaimer last time, so I guessed I 'd better do it now before somebody nails me. (ahem) "My Life as a Teenage Robot" is copyright Nickelodeon and created by Rob Renzetti. All of the characters belong to them, except for Sam, who's mine. Okay! Done!

Chapter Two: You're Uninvited

That evening at her house, Sam brought the idea of holding the Halloween party there before her parents. At first they had been skeptical, but with the right touch of daughterly charm and pleading she won them over. Their only conditions were that the party be over by midnight and that she and her co-hosts clean up afterwards. After many thanks, hugs and kisses, Sam phoned Brad and Jenny about everything. Operation costume party was good to go.

The next morning, the three friends arrived at school a few minutes early and met at their lockers to discuss their plans before class. "Brad, did you bring the invitations?" Jenny asked.

The red-haired boy grinned and held up a stack of greeting cards decorated with little stickers of pumpkins and bats. "I sure did! I filled them all out, too." He divided the large stack into three smaller ones and gave one to each of the girls. "I got thirty of them, so each of us gets to pass out ten."

Jenny opened one of the cards and read the information Brad had written inside. Along with the time, date, and location of the party, he'd included all three of their phone numbers. At the bottom there was an additional note: "No witch costumes allowed?" Jenny read. "Good thinking. After that mess with Enchantra, I don't want to see another witch ever again!"

Brad groaned and rolled his eyes at the memory. "That makes three of us." Sam added, flashing a knowing grin at him. "Maybe after school we can all go shopping for party supplies! We'll need plenty of snacks and drinks!"

"And don't forget costumes!" Jenny piped up. She gripped her cards tightly, trying to contain her rising excitement. "Oh, boy! My first costume party! I can hardly wait to start trying them on! I'm gonna have the best costume ever!"

Sam laughed at the robot girl's enthusiasm. "Just focus on the invitations for now, Jenny! We still have a week to decide on costumes."

"No, we don't!" Jenny insisted. "We have only five days, twelve hours, and four point two minutes! That's barely enough time to look at the catalogues!"

Brad waved a hand in the air disdainfully. "Pssht. Catalogues. Some of my best costumes were made out of stuff I had lying around at home!"

Jenny's pigtails perked up as she suddenly recalled something. "Oh, Brad, that reminds me! Tuck is not coming to this party! Remember last time how he stole the show with his silly game?"

Brad laughed and flashed a thumbs-up. "Relax, Jen! Tuck's going trick-or-treating with his buddies. No kid cares about 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' when he can get free candy!"

"Good! Now I can focus on the people I want there!" Jenny turned to Sam then and clasped her hands together. "Oh! Sam, we have to invite Kevin!"

Sam's cheeks turned light pink as she beamed. "He's that guy who sits in the front in math, right? He's so dreamy!"

Both girls squealed and giggled to each other like a pair of giddy chipmunks. Brad rolled his eyes at their typical female behavior. Also, he couldn't help feeling a twinge of jealousy over Sam's interest in another guy. He'd gotten first dibs on the pretty new girl (he'd met her first, anyway), but so far nothing more then friendship had formed between them. Well, then, if she was going to talk about other guys around him, he was free to talk about other girls around her!

"You know, Sam," he said, grinning mischievously. "If we're inviting people based on their looks, we can't forget the cheerleading squad!"

Sam rolled her eyes. "You boys are all the same. You'll drool over anything in a short skirt."

A sly grin spread across Jenny's face. "That explains why you wear one so often!"

Both human's faces burst into flames, and as Brad coughed and tugged at his shirt collar uneasily and Sam made a frantic attempt to stretch her short skirt's edges, Jenny rocked back and forth with peals of laughter. She just couldn't resist teasing her friends! Sam, however, didn't appreciate being embarrassed in front of Brad. She narrowed her eyes at the robot girl dangerously, trying to think of a snappy comeback. But she was still too flustered, and the best she could manage was: "Oh yeah?!"

Just then the school bell rang, signaling the beginning of classes. "Try again next time, Sam!" Jenny giggled. "I'll see you guys later! Remember, don't give invitations to anybody you don't want there!" With that the three of them said their goodbyes and separated for their first period classrooms.

Don Prima strolled through the crowded hall, glancing around casually as he went. He knew people were watching him, admiring him for the living god that he was. He spotted a group of girls gossiping and decided to grace them with his dazzling smile. "Hi, ladies! Looking good!" With a wink he passed by, confident as ever as they tittered and blushed. He couldn't help chuckling when he heard them debating over which one of them he had winked at. As he headed to his English classroom, he noticed someone standing outside the doorway. It was Brad, handing slips of paper to the students as they filed into the room.

Curious, Don walked up to him. "What are you doing, Brad? Selling tickets for 'the Mr. Smelhaus show'?"

Brad laughed. "Tickets! Hah! That's a good one, Don! These are invitations!" He handed him one of the orange and black cards. "Costume party on Halloween night! All ghosts and ghouls welcome!"

Don flipped the card open and casually read the words inside. "Samantha Sanderson's house?" he asked aloud. "I don't think I've heard of this girl. Is she new?"

"Yeah, she just moved here recently." Brad explained. "She's not too popular yet, but I think she's got a good chance!"

That got Don's interest. "Really? What makes you say that?"

Brad's smile grew wide with enthusiasm. "She moved here from North Korea! That's so cool! She's traveled all over the world, in fact! Plus, she's smart, nice, pretty . . ." A faraway look came into his eyes as a vision of the radiant and lovely Sam appeared in his mind. "And she's got the most gorgeous blonde hair, like a cascade of spun gold shining in the morning sun."

Don arched his eyebrows and smirked, pocketing the invitation in his pants. "She sounds like quite the babe! I'll look forward to meeting her next week!" As he walked into the classroom he took a different piece of paper from his pocket. It was a long list of crossed-out female names labeled 'Girls I've Dated'. Taking a pencil in hand he jotted down the name 'Samantha' at the bottom.

Meanwhile, outside the classroom, Brad snapped out of his trance. He stood there dumbly for a moment, his brain telling him that something terrible had just happened. When it finally dawned on him he smacked his forehead in frustration. "D'oh! Brad, you idiot! What have you done??"

Sam stared blankly through her plastic goggles at the frog corpse lying belly up in her tray. She had already pinned its limbs to the bottom of the pan, forcing its skinny arms and legs into a helpless spread eagle position, but she simply couldn't bring herself to do the rest. Her task was to slice the creatures' skin and muscle open from top to bottom, and then examine the greasy organs inside one by one. All of the other students were poking around at their specimen's innards, but Sam remained rigid with revulsion. For all she knew, that thing was still alive and would jump up and spit slime all over her at any moment. But there was no way to get out of this; the lab was being graded. Stomach knotting up, she reached one gloved hand for the scalpel and turned it over, trying not to contemplate what she was about to do. Swallowing a hard lump in her throat, she lowered the tip of the blade to the frog's exposed stomach.

"Hey, Sam!" a creaking nasal voice chirped.

Her tense reflexes jerked in surprise, the scalpel clattering to the table. Sheldon was standing next to her, wearing his own set of plastic goggles and grinning cheerfully with his crooked overbite. "How's the operation coming along?"

Sam groaned in irritation. "Not good. I can't even get started."

The geeky boy looked at the corpse lying pathetically in Sam's tray. "Really? I've been finished for a while! In fact, I couldn't wait to get started! Frog anatomy is so fascinating!"

She rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Gosh, I bet it is." Then her lips curved up into a devilish smirk. She'd just found a way to save her biology grade, and annoy Jenny for embarrassing her in front of Brad earlier. Composing herself, she clasped her hands together and smiled sweetly. "Sheldon, honey," she began, practically singing. "Would you be a sweetie and let me examine your frog guts? There's no way I could cut up my poor little froggy!"

Sheldon's slanted eyes widened behind his goggles. He stammered and blushed, not knowing what to do. "S-s-sorry, I-I-I already threw it in the g-g-g-garbage."

Sam slid closer to him and batted her eyes. "Then why don't we make a deal? There's gonna be a little Halloween party at my place next week, and it's invitation only. How would you like to be one of the lucky guests?"

"M-m-me? Really? Wow! I've never been invited to anything in my life!" He paused, mulling the strange idea over in his head for a moment. "Gosh, I dunno, Sam. I'm not exactly Mister Popular around here. No one would wanna hang out with me."

He was falling for it! She had him in her clutches now. He'd taken the bait; now to spring the trap. "Come on! It'll be fun!" Sam insisted. "And I know for a fact that Jenny will be there!" An elated grin stretched across Sheldon's pale, pimpled features. He looked as if he'd just won the lottery, or died and gone to heaven. Sam grinned to herself. "All you have to do is dissect this little frog for me. Deal?"

"Deal!" he exclaimed loudly.

"I thought you'd say that." Sam smiled triumphantly and slipped an invitation into the boy's hand. "Now make with the surgery, Dr. Frankenstein."

An hour later the next bell rang, releasing students to their next classes. A crowd of girls from the first period gym class entered the locker room from a tiring game of soccer. All of them were covered in sweat, mud and grass stains except for two. The Crust cousins wore the same T-shirts and shorts that were the class uniforms, but their hair and clothing were neat and spotless.

"That falsified doctor's note was sheer brilliance, Tiff!" cackled Brit. "We really must use that tactic that for the rugby unit!"

"No sweat, cuz!" Tiff grinned. "I've been practicin' the doc's signature for weeks! We're covered for the rest of the year!"

The sound of animated chatter distracted the cousins from their conversation. A new group of girls had entered for the next gym class, making the locker room even more crowded and noisy. As they looked more closely, the Crusts realized that all of the girls were swarming around Jenny. "Calm down, everybody!" she shouted over the noise, holding a bundle of papers out of the crowd's reach. "I don't have enough cards for all of you!"

Brit and Tiff stared at the scene slack-jawed. Some of the girls began to break off from the crowd as they received cards from Jenny. Tiff's arm lashed out and snatched one of them by the wrist. "Hey, you!" she bellowed at the frightened girl. "What's goin' on here?!"

"D-didn't you hear?" the girl stuttered. "Jenny's throwing a costume party for Halloween!"

"She is?!" Tiff spun around to her cousin, still clutching the other girl's wrist. "Brit! We shoulda thought o' that! Why didn't we think of that?!"

Brit didn't answer, as she was too busy brooding. She pouted her black lips and tapped her chin with one long finger for a few moments. Then a light seemed to go on in her head. Suddenly her entire demeanor changed from dismal to delighted. "Jenny! Oh, Jenny, darling!" she called out gaily. "You simply must invite us!"

Stunned, Tiff finally released her captive. "Umm, Brit? Hellooo! We hate Jenny, remember?"

Brit ignored her cousin and roughly pushed and shoved her way to the front of the noisy crowd of females. Her voice dripped with sugar and honey as she spoke. "Jenny, Tiff and I would be so pleased if we could come to your big bash! We have some fabulous costumes, but since Rizinski cancelled the school's Halloween ball we've no place to wear them!"

Jenny looked just as surprised as Tiff. "Are you serious, Brit? You really want to come?"

"Of course we do!" Brit replied laughingly. "We think it would be a fine way for us to resolve our differences! Don't we, Tiff?"

Tiff blinked in confusion a few times before answering. "Uh, yeah! Sure! Can't we all just get along?"

Jenny's skeptical look faded. Maybe Brit was telling the truth. And even if she wasn't, she'd have Brad and Sam there to help her if things went wrong. "Okay! Here's some invitations. I can't wait to see your costumes!"

Brit accepted the two invitations with a syrupy sweet smile. "Thank you ever so much, dear!"

She pushed her way back through back through the crowd and rejoined Tiff, who was looking more perplexed then ever before. "Brit, what're you up to? Why the heck are we goin' to dork-bot's party?!"

Brit's syrupy smile turned into an evil sneer. "To sabotage it, of course! Surely you remember the incident with the Mudslinger at Don Prima's party?" She clenched her fists, crushing the invitations in her grip. "That was her fault! I'm sure of it! She made fools of us in front of everyone!"

Tiff chuckled wickedly, finally understanding. "I get it! And now's our chance for some payback!"

"Precisely! Now, let's change out of these nasty uniforms! There's much planning to be done before Halloween night!"

To be continued . . .